Chapter 7 - A Voice Behind the WallMara pressed one finger to her lips.
Nobody moved.
The voice came again.
“Elise, are you there?”
I stumbled toward the wall.
“Lily?”
“Don't say my name too loudly.”
The words were so small, so frightened, that I felt something tear open inside my chest.
“Where are you?”
“Behind the wall.”
Caleb swept the flashlight across the concrete. There were no doors, no windows, no obvious openings. The chamber had been built as a reinforced shelter, and every surface appeared solid.
Mara crouched near the steel cabinet.
“Ask her what she can see.”
I leaned toward the wall.
“Lily, can you hear me clearly?”
“Yes.”
“Can you see a light?”
“No. They said not to look at the cameras.”
Mara and Caleb exchanged a glance.
“There are cameras in the tunnel,” Caleb murmured. “Someone has been using this shelter.”
He examined the far corner, pushing his fingers along the concrete seams. After several seconds, he found a metal ring hidden beneath a layer of dust.
He pulled.
A narrow panel shifted inward.
Cold air spilled from the opening.
Behind it stretched a cramped service corridor, barely wide enough for one person to crawl through. A red emergency light blinked at the far end.
“Stay here,” Caleb said.
I grabbed his arm.
“No.”
“Elise, it could be dangerous.”
“My sister is behind that wall.”
“Which is why someone could be trying to lure you in.”
I stared at him.
He was right.
That made it worse.
Mara moved to the opening and listened.
“Lily?”
“Yes.”
“This is Mara. I'm Elise's sister.”
“I know.”
“Can you tell me who else is with you?”
A long silence followed.
Then Lily whispered, “The woman who says she's my mother.”
I felt the blood drain from my face.
“Our mother?”
“No. The other one.”
The other one.
My mother had said that another woman had given birth to the child whose identity was transferred. Caleb had mentioned a wealthy father who had arranged to conceal a daughter.
Was Lily the child they had originally tried to hide?
Or had someone deliberately reversed the entire story?
Mara crawled into the corridor first. Caleb followed her, and I went after them before either could stop me.
The tunnel sloped downward. Water dripped from overhead pipes, and the smell of damp earth grew stronger with each step.
At the end of the corridor, we found a small metal door.
It was unlocked.
Beyond it lay a room furnished with a folding bed, a table, and a wall of old computer equipment. A single camera sat in the upper corner.
A girl stood beside the table.
She was perhaps ten years old, though her slight frame made it difficult to tell. Her dark hair fell over one shoulder, and she wore a gray sweatshirt several sizes too large.
Her eyes met mine.
My eyes.
For several moments, we simply stared at each other.
I had no memory of sharing a womb with another child. No memory of a second crib, a second birthday candle, or a second set of tiny hands reaching for our mother.
Yet I knew her face.
I knew the little crease that appeared between her eyebrows when she was frightened.
I knew the way she tilted her head before speaking.
It felt like looking into a mirror that had spent eleven years learning how to survive without me.
“Lily,” I whispered.
She started toward me, then stopped.
“Are you really Elise?”
“Yes.”
“Prove it.”
I almost smiled through my tears.
“How?”
She looked at my left wrist.
“What's the name of the rabbit?”
I glanced at Mara.
Then I remembered the glass cabinet in our mother's house.
“Benjamin.”
Lily began to cry.
She ran into my arms so forcefully that I nearly stumbled backward. I held her tightly, feeling her small shoulders shake beneath the oversized sweatshirt.
“I thought you were dead,” she whispered.
“I thought I was alone.”
“They said you had forgotten me.”
“I didn't know you existed.”
She pulled away, searching my face.
“They told me you'd grown up and become someone else.”
“I did grow up. I just didn't know why.”
Lily wiped her eyes.
Then she looked at Mara and Caleb.
“Are you taking me away?”
“Yes,” Mara said gently.
“From her?”
“Who?”
Lily pointed toward the ceiling.
“Mrs. Shaw.”
Mara's face hardened.
“Evelyn Shaw is here?”
Lily nodded.
“She comes every few days. She says she is teaching me how to become a proper daughter.”
“A daughter to whom?” I asked.
Lily looked at me with terrible seriousness.
“To the man who owns me.”
A sound escaped my throat.
Caleb stepped forward.
“No one owns you.”
Lily studied him.
“You're Adrian.”
He went still.
“How do you know that name?”
“She has your photograph.”
“Who does?”
“Mrs. Shaw.”
Lily walked to the computer table and opened a drawer. Inside were dozens of printed photographs, some old, some recent. She spread them across the table.
I saw Mara leaving a federal building.
Caleb standing outside a courthouse.
My mother entering a grocery store.
And me, carrying Noah into a pediatric clinic.
The photograph had been taken only three weeks earlier.
Someone had been watching us.
Lily picked up a picture of my son.
“Noah is nice,” she said.
My knees nearly buckled.
“You've seen him?”
“Once. He was here yesterday.”
I grabbed her shoulders.
“Where is he now?”
She pointed toward the computer.
“They took him through the river door.”
Caleb looked up sharply.
“The river door?”
Lily nodded.
“There's another room under the water. That's where they keep the children until the names change.”
Mara moved to the computer.
“Can you show us?”
Lily hesitated.
“Only if you promise not to let her take me again.”
“I promise,” Mara said.
The computer screen displayed a map of the surrounding property. Beneath the shelter, a network of tunnels extended toward a body of water several hundred yards away.
A red marker blinked at the end of one passage.
RIVER ACCESS: ACTIVE.
Caleb leaned over the map.
“This connects to the old service channel beneath the Potomac.”
Mara studied the coordinates.
“It's not on any official building plan.”
“It was decommissioned years ago.”
“Clearly, someone reopened it.”
I stared at Lily.
“How long have you been here?”
She looked toward the door.
“I don't know. They change the clocks.”
“Who brought you here?”
“My mother.”
“Which mother?”
Lily swallowed.
“The one who says I'm her daughter.”
My heart pounded.
“What's her name?”
Lily whispered something that made Mara grip the edge of the table.
“Margaret Voss.”
Daniel's wife?
My father's wife?
The woman whose death certificate I'd once seen in a stack of old family documents?
Mara looked at Caleb.
“Margaret died eleven years ago.”
Caleb shook his head slowly.
“That was the cover story.”
Before anyone could speak, the computer monitor turned black.
A message appeared in white letters.
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED.
Then the speakers crackled.
A woman's voice filled the room.
“Elise, how wonderful that you've finally met your sister.”
I recognized the voice immediately.
Evelyn Shaw.
“You have something that belongs to me,” she continued. “And I'm afraid you've brought it to the only place you cannot escape.”
The lights went out.
A steel door slammed somewhere behind us.
Lily screamed.
And from the corridor, a man's voice announced:
“Federal agents, put your hands up.”
Mara drew her weapon.
May you like
Then the voice added something that made her freeze.
“Agent Morrison, you're under arrest for the murder of Daniel Voss.”
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